Tenth Sunday after Trinity
“You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it to water?”
Summary
Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. In Isaiah 58:9-14 the people are rebuked for “trampling the Sabbath” and, when Jesus is criticised for breaking the Sabbath, in Luke 13:10-17, he claims that his accusers are the ones who do not know how to observe the Sabbath law.
So, what exactly is the Sabbath for? The Sabbath commandment was given after the people of God were liberated from slavery. It was indeed a day of rest to allow slaves and bonded labourers to have time free from toil. In broader terms the Sabbath was to be kept holy, set aside for God to use. The Sabbath is observed, Isaiah says, when you “offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted”; not when you do no work but when you do God’s work, a weekly reminder of who we are and what we are for. It is, then, the ideal day for “a daughter of Abraham… to be set free from bondage”. Observing the Sabbath is what will allow all God’s people to be freed when they actively engage in the work and mission of God instead of “serving their own interests”.
God’s interests are also our interests. Today we are increasingly aware of the interdependence of human lives across the globe: how lack of investment in one place can lead to high food prices in another; how lack of health care locally can spread sickness globally; how conflict and poverty in far off places leads to increasing numbers of refugees and migrants at home. God has made us one, by keeping the Sabbath and unbinding others we discover that we too have been freed.
FIRST READING
Isaiah 58:9b-14
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am.”
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your needs in parched places
and make your bones strong,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water
whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.
If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath,
from pursuing your own interests on my holy day;
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
serving your own interests or pursuing your own affairs;
then you shall take delight in the Lord,
and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
GOSPEL
Luke 13.10-17
“Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it to water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things being done by him.”
